News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-08-11

aAtRy CtiolillS bloNh 1CI biuN
eyes, the BretOnne, as from q sense o
duty, added; Because, you see, I've
just left the Centrale, and that daesn'
give people confidence"
"Ah Well, come in all the same
I've little to fear any way, having ha6
nothing but misery for my lot. i
would be unreasonable to leave Chris
tian out of doors in such cold weather
I'll make You up bed with a strewine
of heather"
The peasant woman went to a shed
and brought in several armfuls OF dry
heath, which she spread in a cornerneal
the chimney place.
/ ''You live alone here :" ventured to
ask the Bretonne.
Yes, with my little girl, who is near
upon sevea I es IN for both of us by
working in the VIZ 3D."
''Your man is dead then -
II never had one, bluntly reioined
La FleuriOtte, ''the poor girl has nc
father. Well, you know, We all have
our troubles. There's your bed now
and here are two or three potatoes
which were left from supper. 'Tis all
have to offer you"
She was interrupted by Il childish
voice, which came from behind plank
partition forming kind of dark closet
III one of the corners of the place.
Good night !" added La Fleuriotte,
'1'll be looking after the little one,
who's getting scared. Try to sleep
well :"
! She took the lamp and sought the ad-
Joining closet, leaving the Bretonne in
/ the dark.
The latter had stretched herself OH
! frugal meal she tried to close her eyes,
but sleep would not come to their tired
! lids. Through the partition boards she
heard La Fleuriotte chatting in a low
voice to her little one, who had been
wakened by the arrival of the stranger
and would not go to sleep again. La
Fleuriotte fondled and coaxed and kiss
ed her darling with endearing words,
the artless expression of which moved
the poor Bretonue in an unwonted man
ner. 1t summoned up confused ma
ternal instinct still slumbering in the
breast of one who had been condemned
for sitting her newborn babe. She
was alive to the fact that, if things chad
not turned ont badly" her own little
one would now be about as old as that
little girl.
A motherly yearning rose in her
beating heart. Her feelings, so long
chilled, were rouse1 to their inmost
depths by this haunting thought and
sound of that sweet childish voice; a
melting softness spread throughout her
being and she had good mind to give
way to tears.
''Now, my darling" said La Fleur-
iotte ''go to sleep like good girl, and
if you do I'll take you tomorrow to
Sainte GATHERINGS FAIR"
''Sainte Catherine is the festival for
little girls, isn't it, mamma?
Eyes, my dear
is it true that on that day Sainte
Catherine brings pretty things to child
rem e.
eyes, sometimes.
''Why, then, doesn't she ever bring
some to me, mamma
because we live SO far away, and
then again we are too poor
''Then she only brings toys to the
rich, does she? Why? I should ike to
have some, too
"Well, some day, if you are good
SlIl SO " Sle'
bring you some also."
"Oh, then I'll go to sleep right off, SO
she may bring me some tomorrow.
A stiffness followed. Then the soft,
gentle breathing Of both mother and
child showed that they had fallen asleep
together.
But the Bretonne could not close her
eyes. A feeling at once poignant and
tender clutched at the heart, and more
than ever before at any time of her life
she thought of the defenseless, harmless
little creature she had ruthlessly stran-
gled.
This dread, remorseful feeling lasted
until the first streak of dawn. At
break of day La Fleuriotte and her
child were still fast locked in each
others arms.
The Bretonne noiselessly crept out of
the hovel, and making the best of her
way back to Auberive, slackened her
steps only when she reached the first
houses of the small place. She slowly
walked up the only street in the village,
intently gazing at the sign-boards over
each shop.
At last one of these signs arrested her
attention. She knocked at the shutters
and the door was soon opened. 1t was
one of those little country stores, where,
besides a variety of haberdashery wares,
cheap secondhand toys may be bought,
cardboard dolls, Noah's arks and baa-
lambs The amazement of the woman
who kept the store was unbounded
when she saw the Bretonne buy up and
pay for the whole stock.
ba VOC rIrnaaaHinor with q
joyful heart on her way back to the
hoyel, when a heavy-gloved hand fell
upon her shoulder. She started, and,
on turning round, shuddered to find
herself face to face with a corporal of
gendarmes. The wretched woman had
forgotten that all liberated convicts
We're forbidd to remain in the pre-
cincts of the Central House of Deten-
ton.
''Instead of vagabondizing around
here, you ought to have already reached
Langres, said the military man in a
gruff voice. "Come, be off :"
She wanted to explain, but it was of
no use. A cart was put into requisitiOn;
she had to get up into it, and away went
the horses, under escort of one of the
gendarmes.
The cart jolted mercilessIy along the
frozen road. The poor Bretonne, with
half-broken heart, clutched her little
parcel of playthings in her benumbed
fingers. Soon, at a turn in the road,
she discovered the path which entered
tho wood.
Her heart leaped, and she besought
the gendarme to stop for a minute.
She had commission, she said, for La
Fleuriotte, woman who lived there,
close by. She teSought with such an
earnestness of manner and feeling, that
the gendarme, who, after all, was good
natured fellow, allowed himself to be
swayed by her entreaties.
The cart was stopped, the horse was
tied to tree, the gendarme and his
prisoner got down and they went up
the path that led to the hovel in the
wood.
La Fleuriotte was busy chopping
wood in front of her door. When she
looked up and caught sight of the woman
whom she had housed on the previous
evening in the hands of gendarme she
stood with mouth wide open, like one
petrifed.
'eHush." CALCULATED the Bretonne, as
she put her finger to her lips. els the
little one still asleepa'
eyes; but"
Garry these toys softly to her bed
side, and tell her that Sainte Catherine
sent them to her. / went back to Au-
berive to fetch them, but it seems l had
no right to do so, and / am being taken
l. r ,no,poc -